A few weeks ago, we found ourselves with a pound of fresh habanero peppers to use up. Hot sauce seemed the obvious solution, so we doubled this recipe and modified it slightly.
We started with these ingredients:
- 40 Habaneros
- 1-2 heads garlic
- 1 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp sugar
To make the sauce, we simply chopped up the habaneros (removing most of the seeds) and roasted them with the garlic and a bit of oil at 180°C for about 20 minutes. We let them cool, squeezed the roasted garlic out of the cloves and threw everything in a blender (including the rest of the liquids and spices). Blend until smooth. That’s it!
A few weeks later, we decided to try making a sweeter version. That recipe goes like this:
For the basic hot sauce –
- 1,200 grams Habaneros
- 3 heads garlic
- 2 cups distilled white vinegar
- 1 cup lemon juice
- 4 tsp salt
- 4 tsp smoked paprika
- 4 tsp white sugar
For the sugar syrup:
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 2 tsp cornstarch
Cut the tops off the habaneros and slice them in half. Remove the seeds from two-thirds of the peppers. Roast the peppers with the garlic in a bit of oil at 180°C for 20-30 minutes (until the peppers just start to blacken and the garlic is soft). You may have to do this in batches, depending on the size of your oven.
Let the peppers and garlic cool. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of the cloves. Throw the peppers, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar and spices in a blender and blend until smooth.
Separately, put the water, brown sugar and ketchup in a saucepan and simmer for about 5 minutes until thickened. Mix in the cornstarch, and then add it to your blended peppers at a ratio of 1/2 cup sugar syrup to 1 cup hot peppers.
How easy is that? And it’s seriously one of the best hot sauce recipes we’ve made yet. We’re taking a little along on our weekend bike tours now, to make our normal meals even spicier!
25th October 2012 at 12:10 am #
I made this a few weeks ago after my pepper plants exploded. I stupidly didnt write the recipe down and have been searching for it up until now! This is THE BEST EVER!